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“Momma, where will you be?”
“I’ll show you.” She turned and walked down the long hall to the bedroom at the end. “This is the master. Dad and I will sleep here.” She turned to look at Jace. “Okay?”
He nodded. “What do I do if I need you?”
Vander answered, “If you need mom or me, you come knock the door. Don’t hesitate, just come knock the door.”
Jace seemed to accept that readily enough.
George stood outside the door to the second bedroom with a funny look on his face.
Ruby lifted her chin. “Okay, Georgie? Same goes for you.”
His face cleared and he gave her a thumbs-up.
“Okay, muscles. Put the bags in the rooms and we can go explore.”
We hit the village first.
Laid out in the shape of a giant teardrop, the centre held a life-size checkers board, a small park for younger children, a fountain, and a bandstand that currently hosted a live band, all of which were separated and surrounded by wide walkways. Stores and restaurants bordered the perimeter of the teardrop, and the lodges reared up behind them.
We were not the only ones who wanted to get away for the long weekend. More people than I expected milled around, sweaters and light jackets knotted around waists, the sun shining warmly overhead.
Within the first five minutes, Ruby bought the boys bear paws. When they finished those, she got all of us hot chocolate. It was unseasonably warm for hot chocolate, but the smell of chocolate coming through the door made it impossible to resist.
At the bakery, she gave Jace her credit card and ordered them to pick out treats for later, with the warning that if they didn’t get her something good, she got to pick the movie. A few doors down sold old fashioned kettle corn, as well as popcorn in every flavour you could imagine, and a few you didn’t want to. Ruby declared popcorn necessary for movie watching. She picked her own flavour, telling the boys she couldn’t take the risk of letting them choose for her flavour because she loved popcorn too much.
At the toy store, she noticed George looking at the collector cards and bought him two packages. Jace got a book of puzzles which triggered a memory of Ruby carrying a puzzle book around in her backpack for times when she didn’t have anything else to do.
With everything she bought him, George checked with me to see if it was okay.
Finally, when I got him by himself for a moment, I asked, “You okay, buddy?”
He looked surprised. “Yeah, dad. I’m good. She’s nice.”
“She is.” I smiled at him. “You don’t have to check with me if she wants to buy you something. If you want to accept it, say thank you. If you don’t, just say, no, thanks. Okay?”
He nodded.
“Does she make you nervous?”
He shrugged. “She’s kind of loud and… enthusiastic. It seems like she’s mad, but then she’s not.”
“Ah,” I said. “Ruby likes to play. She also has lots of emotions and she doesn’t do a great job hiding them.” I shrugged. “I think it’s good. You always know what’s going on with Ruby if you pay attention.”
“She’s not like mom, is she.”
I jolted. I should have been expecting it, but I wasn’t. “How do you mean?”
He shrugged again. “I’m not sure. Just, she’s different. It’s like, she actually likes you.”
I laughed. “Why are you so surprised that she likes me? Am I not likeable?” I scrubbed the top of his head. “Do I smell?” I pulled him into a light headlock and tickled him. “Do I have bad breath?”
He poked me hard in the ribs and I released him. “Ha! Got your weak spot!” He exclaimed.
Just then, Ruby and Jace returned from picking something out for Alex.
“You beating up your dad, George?”
